


Third time charm

by SuccinctDisquisition



Series: The Avengers Assemble in Bed Universe [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Random. Seriously.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 05:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3597486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuccinctDisquisition/pseuds/SuccinctDisquisition
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I met him three times. It might have taken one for me to fall in love. </p><p>Story in third person pov.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third time charm

The rain was heavy and thick. The rapid snick snick of the windshield wipers was the only sound battling for dominance over the water pouring over Clint's borrowed vehicle. A short glance at the digital clock in the dashboard showed that the evening was drawing to an end. He was close, both to the safe house and his mark. 

"Just a little-" Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Fifty feet. The agent slowed his vehicle to a more manageable speed. It wouldn't look suspicious in this weather. He almost slammed on the breaks when the silhouette of a man appeared alongside of the road. A man with his thumb out, a universal gesture. Hitchhiking, seriously?

Clint slowed to a stop easily and flicked the safety locks open, waiting for his mark to catch up. The passenger door was wrenched open and a quivering voice greeted the blond man. "Thanks man. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

Clint chuckled and shifted the car back in gear, pretending not to examine every inch of the sopping wet man beside him. The archer quirked a half smile for his target. "Don't sweat it." He assured. "I couldn't, in good conscious, leave you out there in that weather. You'll probably get pneumonia, you know. Out there in the freezing rain."

The scrawny man in the passenger seat shifted uncomfortably. "Pneumonia no. Hypothermia would be more likely."

The agent laughed. "Look at you, Mr. Smarty Pants. You some kind of doctor or nurse or something." Clint honestly did not know what he expected to get by talking to the withdrawn vagabond. Would the man continue his pattern?

"Or something." The wet man answered shortly. 

The archer shifted, feigning a bit of nervousness but let his mark have the reprieve for a time. The two men sat in silence for nearly two hours. Clint would swear the hitchhiker was actually sleeping. That was new. Icy blue eyes flicked back to the clock and his mind briefly raced with calculations. He should be near the turnoff now. 

Slowing down the car seemed to rouse his passenger. "Sorry. Must have dozed off." The dark haired man yawned. 

Clint answered with a smirk. "You must be tired. Walking everywhere- How'd you end up out here anyway, guy?"

The agent could feel dark eyes studying him but he acted ignorant. The damp man sighed and rubbed his arms to try to generate some warmth. "Car broke down. It wasn't raining like this when I set out."

"Where're you headed?"

The hitchhiker shifted uncomfortably. "Anywhere that isn't where I came from."

"Lover's quarrel?" Clint fished. 

The specially trained SHEILD agent could sense the other's blush as he responded embarrassedly. "You could say that. You ever had someone so obsessed with you, they'd hunt you down across international borders?"

Blue eyes darted to glance at the shivering man. "Nope. Not me. I'm usually the one doing the stalking."

The lanky man visibly withdrew at that statement. "You follow many people?"

"It's my job." Clint answered shortly. 

"Army?"

The agent shook his head with a humored huff. "SHEILD."

The vagabond gave a noncommittal noise. 

Clint made a humored noise in the back of his throat. "I kind of expected you to jump out the car by now."

Dark eyes focus back on the driver. "If you're really with SHEILD, you should know I'm smarter than that. There's no where for me to go right now. But if it makes you feel better, I'll jump out before we get to the next town."

"It would, thanks. Next stop isn't in town anyway. Wanna know where we're going?"

The hitchhiker took up rubbing his arms again. "You're the strangest agent I've come across by far. Why would you tell me who you are?"

Clint grinned. "I haven't told you who I am. Just that I've been watching you and thought it would be nice to keep you from dying of hypothermia. I'm Hawkeye by the way, incase if you're wondering."

Dark eyes gave the agent an appraising look. "You already know who I am."

The archer nodded, feeling rather giddy about his decision to pick the guy up instead of letting the physicist do an impeccable impression of a drowned rat. "Dr. Bruce Banner, gamma expert and escaped anger management patient. I know all about you from your files. Except..." Clint quieted and his observant eyes flicked back over to his passenger. 

Bruce all but glared when he spoke. "Except?"

Clint pursed his lips and focused on the rain obscured road instead of answering. It was less than ten minutes before he spotted the muddy gravel turnoff from the highway. The car rumbled as it travelled between two vegetable plots slowly. 

The passenger shifted again. "So, where are you taking me? SHEILD's maximum security facility Arkansas?"

The blond arched a brow at the question. "You really think SHEILD gives a damn about making some secret base in Arkansas? What kind of funding do you think we have?"

Bruce cleared his throat before speaking. "I've seen some of SHEILD's tech. It's not exactly tinker toys and tin foil. You never said where you're taking me."

"My safe house. There are a bunch scattered around everywhere and since I get to sleep in a nice warm comfy bed tonight, I figured I could invite you along too." Clint said with a friendly smile. 

The physicist was not impressed. "Why would you do this? What is SHEILD getting at this time? I bet it's really some army base. If you think you can keep him contained, you have a big surprise coming to you."

Clint sighed. "I'm not trying to lock you up Doc. SHEILD doesn't really want to mess with you right now so the agents tailing you are just glorified babysitters. Do you have any idea what it's like to go abroad with your partner on a high stakes infiltration case only to be set up watching your sorry ass as soon as the mission's over? Nah, if SHEILD's gonna slap me in the face, I'm gonna kick their ass right back."

"Have they ever considered the option of just leaving me alone all together?" Bruce mumble and Clint would swear he could see a hint of a smile playing at the scruffy man's lips.

"Yeah, sure. The man that killed several grunts and officers while destroying all sorts of school property."

"They attacked me first."

"Leveled a third world town."

"Not my fault."

"Destroyed who knows how many thousands of dollars worth of SHEILD technology."

"Which could have been avoided if SHEILD wasn't waving it around in the other guy's face and shooting at him."

"And saved two agents in the process."

Bruce turned towards Clint apprehensively as the car coasted to a stop in front of a tiny rustic cabin nestled snugly beneath a screen of trees and foliage to avoid notice. The physicist's words were soft. "I don't remember that."

Clint cut the ignition solemnly. "I do." He pocketed the keys and rushed into the safe house, avoiding the downpour as much as possible on the way in. 

The agent shook his head like a dog, trying to get the water out of his hair with little luck. He immediately piled wood into the fireplace and kindled the fire to life. Clint wasn't worried about the mark taking off with his car. Files said Banner could hot wire a car and then some but the man had proved smarter than that. SHEILD didn't put a tracker on their cars. SHEILD put trackers on parts of their cars. They both knew that. If Bruce did take it, he'd ditch it not far away. Clint hid a smile when he heard the cabin door open behind him. 

"The agents- they?" The lanky man started quietly. 

Clint trained his face to disinterest. "They survived when the army shot because the Hulk jumped into the line of fire. Reports showed that there was a cognitive decision to do so on his part. He looked at the missile. He looked at the agents. Then he put himself between the two."

Bruce looked like he was in deep thought. "SHEILD showed you- What, a video file, or some report?"

Clint straightened from his crouch in front of the fireplace and turned to the disheveled scientist. The words homeless and physicist never mingled in the archer's mind until he laid eyes on the gamma irradiated man. Clint didn't have to lie. "Yeah. They showed me both. Everything they had on the incident repeatedly. It was a big deal to management."

Bruce nodded and peered about at their meager lodgings. All one room, no electricity, no plumbing, no nothing. Just a bed stuffed into one corner near enough to the fire to keep warm and a gas kitchenette with a chill box next to it. It was empty, Clint knew, because he'd seen the like before and there was not any ice to keep anything cold to use it. But there were eggs outside, the place must have some free range chickens trained to live on the property. Clint smirked when Bruce stooped to rummage through the kitchen corner. All their supplies would be in a secure space under the cabin. Only the firewood was left above ground to conserve space for more important things. 

The dark haired man bent over to peer into the makeshift sink and Clint let his eyes travel down the lean form. Damp jeans clung to the long lines of the scientist's legs. Unfortunately, his oversized shirt hung low in a grungy mess of creases. The wrinkles hid any definition that might be there. 

Bruce straightened and turned back to the agent rubbing his arms to keep warm. "So this is where SHEILD agents go for weekend getaways?"

"It's better than some of the hovels you've found over the years." Clint snorted. "Take what you can get when you have the chance."

"Sounds like you know what it's like to do without. I was under the impression SHEILD treated its agents better than its prisoners." The dark haired man murmured as he moved to warm his hands by the fire. 

Clint peeled off his sweater, fingering his shirt to find it pretty dry. He shrugged saying, "SHEILD's not so bad. We get what we need and when possible, they put us up pretty well. The play's not bad either. Too bad I blow my money on all sorts of crazy shit."

"Before SHEILD though." Bruce whispered so lowly, Clint knew it wasn't meant to be heard. "What all do you buy?" He asked louder. 

Clint pondered the question a moment. "Bows. Arrows. Cat food. You know, the usual."

The physicist gave him a skeptical look before unsteadily nodding. "Yeah, that's normal."

The blond man grinned at how easily his odd shopping list was accepted by the stranger. He shucked his pants off and hung them from a hook on the wall and crouched down in front of the false floor boards leading to the supply nook beneath the cabin. He pulled out the clothes he had requested for this post and waved a pair of sweats in front of the damper man. 

"Tada! Presto! Dry duds. Here you go." 

When Clint handed Bruce the clothes, the scientist looked shocked even as he fingered the SHEILD logo on the sweater. Then dark eyes rose to watch the agent pull on a pair of sweatpants of his own. He asked. "Why are you doing this Hawkeye?"

Clint rummaged through the nook for some food and headed over to the stove with a gas can tucked under his arm. He fired up the burner and put some canned beans on before bothering to answer the man again. "I told you. I'm a super spy and I belong on real missions. Not this babysitting gig they just threw at me. If they want to pick on me, I'll screw them right back. They don't want us interfering with you. They want to watch you out in the big wild world. They don't even want you to know your on display but since I made contact, they'll have to pull me off the case."

Bruce had approached to peek into the pot. His dark focused eyes turned back up to Clint's face. "What makes you think they would give you another mission just for misbehaving?"

The agent smirked. "They will. They won't risk us getting involved."

Bruce's brows rose quizzically. "Involved in what?"

Clint had to struggle not to lose his composure. He said stoically. "Each other."

"Why would they ever even think that?" Bruce spluttered. 

Sharp icy blue eyes roamed over the physicist's body. The dark haired man was still in his dirty, damp clothes. "Not going to change?"

"Oh. Um yeah." The physicist approached the fire before peeling off his oversized shirt, shivering a bit before tugging on the clean SHEILD sweatshirt. The dark haired man blatantly avoided looking back at the archer as he changed his pants. No underwear, interesting. When Bruce turned back, Clint grinned. The scientist huffed. "You really take this watching thing seriously, don't you?"  
~  
Clint laughed.   
~  
Bruce looked so shocked to see him. Surely they told the man he would be working with two SHEILD agents. "Hawkeye!" The physicist gaped. 

Captain Rogers turned with an abrupt smile. "Oh good, you have already met."

Nat touched the super soldier's arm. Clint had to wonder if the captain knew she was playing with him. "We were the two agents the Hulk saved."

"Oh, what a coincidence." Steve gleamed. 

Clint felt his face heat a bit under the look the doctor gave him. "It's been a few years, Dr. Banner. I've grown up a bit."

The physicist fidgeted a bit and spoke with a creased brow. "Does that mean you don't cuddle people claiming to be cold anymore?"

Clint grinned. The night they spent together was awkward but Clint had dreamed about it, what could have happened, for years. He just hoped it was not too late now. "Nope. Don't do that anymore." The agent admitted. 

Bruce nodded. The man was good at hiding his disappointment but Clint saw it there. He hoped it wasn't his imagination. The SHEILD agent stepped closer to the scientist who looked like he wanted to shrink into himself. 

Clint lifted Bruce's face to look up at him with one crooked finger. "I grew up Doc. Now, I'll just flat out ask you to cuddle."

The scientist was clearly fighting a smile when he responded. "You really have grown up. I'd never have expected you to ask-"

Clint kissed Bruce softly and they both smiled. "You're right. But this time, I'll make my intentions very clear."

Tony Stark cleared his throat, catching the pair's attention. Frosty blue eyes scanned the newly assembled Avenger's faces. Stark was grinning. Rogers was gaping. Thor was positively beaming. Even Natasha's eyes had a pleased gleam to them. There was no disgust or anything. Clint gave a nervous laugh anyhow. 

Tony nudged Thor conspiratorially. "That's it. I am definitely joining the Avengers. That seals the deal."


End file.
